Where'd September Go?

I just checked StixChix to see when I’d last blogged and was shocked to realize it’s been more than a month. Not a normal month, but a whirlwind month. We are always comfortably busy, but since assuming certain roles within the MFP (you know by now what that stands for: Master Food Preservers) program, my phone calls have doubled and my inbox is full each day of primary emails (not promotions, but the kind from people in your contact list). I joke about being an MFP-VIP (you know how it works…the more letters following your name, the more important you are), but I’m actually beginning to feel like there’s some truth to that. Anyway, the bottom line is this: between taking two trips, which account for about half of the month, and being consumed by my new interest, I don’t know how I got anything done at home.

But, I did and I’m pleased to say I actually managed to quilt two tops during September and finished piecing the poppy quilt hanging that you’ve seen going together. I was, of course, under a bit of pressure to complete each of the quilts as one was for Maria’s brother, who turned 40 in September and had a big bash/family reunion in Spokane to celebrate, and the other was Grandma Wier’s quilt, which I personally delivered to my niece and her daughter in Missouri. Before I give you an update on the latter, I’ll show you a picture of Maria’s quilt. She had it made in May or June before she left on her most recent fishing trip. (Yes, I’ve had it all summer and just got around to doing it. I have no excuse. Let’s just focus on the positive…I got it to her in time.)

Grandma Wier’s quilt (I can now refer to her as Isabelle) turned out really well. Even I am amazed when I think back to the package of musty-smelling, yellowed blocks I received in the mail and the interesting journey I’ve had this past month learning bits and pieces about my grandmother. The jury is still out on whether or not it’s a Dresden Plate or Drunkard’s Path, but whatever it is, it’s a little bit of Grandma and a little bit of me, her granddaughter, and I’m so pleased to learn that I’m so much like her. It must be genetic! Before long I may know even more about Isabelle as Verne and I returned home from Missouri with a binder of research Leanne has completed on genealogy and I’m soon to receive a box from my sister with four more binders and books of additional work. The idea here is that Verne and I take over Leanne’s ancestry work and mission to trace both my mother’s side (near complete) and my father’s line (nearly started). This is all I needed…another hobby! A few months ago I would have said: Who cares?! My attitude has changed since receiving those old quilt squares. I care! Here’s a picture of Emma and the finished quilt…

We spent the last week in Portland attending our fourth annual Northwest Quilt Expo. It was fantastic to say the least. I am always reminded of my status as Novice Quilter after seeing the incredible work at this show. I’ve barely begun to crawl and my quilt legs may never be sturdy enough to get me through a project even close to some of the beautiful quilts we saw at this show. They were extraordinary. The theme this year was Portland Bridges. Just a little background, Portland is situated just a few miles from the Oregon-Washington border, which is delineated by the Columbia River, and the Willamette River runs through the center of the city, dividing Portland into East and West (a road in town – Burnside – divides the city North and South, creating four quadrants). Portland has twelve bridges crossing the Willamette River in town and is sometimes referred to as Bridgetown.  There were several dozen quilts entered in this category and they ranged from realistic to very abstract. One of the most beautiful abstract quilts included a background of quilted, wavy lines that portrayed water and a series of vertical fabric pieces the bridge. So simplistic, but I have to say it was my favorite.

Another I particularly liked leaned towards realism in design, while using playful, bright colors. It has a feeling of evening with the light, contrasting colors suggesting night-time lights.

One more fave…this is no ordinary barnyard scene. The three-dimensional effects from stitched, cut, and torn fabrics on the tail feathers forced a closer look by every passerby. It might have been one of the more photographed quilts in the show.

Thanks to technology, I’m able to backdate this post to October 1st, so that to the unawares it seems I came right home and blogged. Nope! I’ve been home a week and it looks like October is going to be another crazy month. I’ve taken a few minutes to stop in and say hello to my Cabin Cat, Ernie, but that’s about it. I am feeling the pull, though, as the leaves are beginning to turn and it’s looking like Fall. A combination of the quilt show and cooler weather always inspire me to get quilting. We’ve got a quick trip to So Cal planned this week and then we should be home the rest of the month. I’m determined to have a productive month doing what I love most…Quilting!

August - Old Quilts, Puzzles, and Beetles

There's a couple of days left this month and I'm still hopeful that I'll finish a quilt top...my first in 60+ days. Shameful! Verne just informed me that August was an historically cool month, so there goes that excuse. Actually, if you've been reading my blog you know that I've been busy finishing my Grandma Wier's Dresden Plate quilt. And I've been canning up a storm (figs, peaches, beets, okra, and more). And I've completed over 35 hours of MFP-community service work towards my 50-hour requirement. And I've just about completed the poppy quilt hanging I showed you earlier in the month...

A few more background borders and two more flying geese edge borders and it will be ready for quilting. It took a ton of cutting, a lot of ripping and replacing fabric choices, some foul language, and I finally found my groove. If you have a design wall and like puzzles, you may like this project. There are no written directions, just a graph made up of 1" squares. Pieces of the puzzle are squares, rectangles, and triangles made from the two previous shapes and are outlined on the graph paper and filled in with marks that indicate light to dark fabrics for each of four poppies and the foliage. It took me half a quilt to begin enjoying the process and I now think I may be able to make it again. It was at the half-way mark when I backed up and ripped out an entire section because there wasn't sufficient contrast. After that, I began having some fun and have worked on it an hour or two each day all the while listening to a book on tape.

I mentioned beetles...if you've spent any time in the cabin bedroom then you know that the floor has become increasingly uneven sloping down from the perimeter of the room by as much as 2-3 inches in the center. We have speculated for the last few years that moisture is accumulating under the floor causing the problem. Mystery solved! Verne has spent the past week tearing out the carpet and what's left of the floor (double thickness), all floor joists and bracing, and wheelbarrow loads of a powdery sawdust and although there is no evidence of insects, our contractor assured us the problem was powdery beetles. They must have moved on shortly after eating through almost half of the sub-flooring and over half of the joists and blocking leaving no sign of beetle carcasses or excrement (unless the powder substance is their excrement). Those buggers ate right through 2"x6" boards leaving little evidence that they were ever there. Good news is we were able to save the carpet and the bedroom should be back in order and ready for guests by the end of September. Another "to do" is DONE! It was a dirty job, though...

A Family Connection (cont'd from August 17, 2014)

Isn’t it interesting how styles come and go and then come again? Slight changes, but still rooted in the past. Is anything really new? In my last blog I told you about my meeting with Anelie Beldin and her quick identification of the pattern used to make the quilt blocks I’ve been assembling. I’m still waiting to hear from Anelie regarding the name of the particular design, but she is certain it falls in the family of the Dresden Plate. A bit of research has produced a wealth of information about the Dresden Plate and over a couple hundred examples of various versions of the pattern.

Inspired by elaborately designed porcelain plates from Dresden, Germany during the 19^th century, the quilt design became popular and widely available in the 1920’s. It was not always under the name Dresden Plate and was sometimes called Grandmother’s Sunburst, Friendship Ring, Aster, Dahlia and Sunflower. The common characteristic of various patterns is the petals that radiate from a center point, which typically create a flower shape.

The more I look at Grandma Wier’s quilt, the more I like it. I have several ideas for my own more contemporary version of the same pattern. It will look nothing like the soft colored quilt you saw in my last blog. It will be a burst of contrasting colors that will showcase shapes within shapes. Yet, it will be rooted in the Dresden Plate pattern that dates back over 200 hundred years.

Just as my Dresden Plate quilt will have connections to the past, I’ve been realizing more and more family connections as a result of this project. First of all, if I described to you a person who loves cats, loves to cook, and loves to quilt, who would you think of…ME, of course! Well, actually I’m describing my Grandma Wier. As I’ve sent out emails to family members in an effort to determine who might have a Wier quilt or information about our grandmother, these are a few things I’ve learned. I should also mention that she was a less that perfect housekeeper…also a similarity. We all know that if it weren’t for my full-time housekeeper, Verne, I’d probably live in a mess of fabric scraps and cat hair.

My efforts have also paid off with another quilt top. My brother’s daughter, Lori, who still resides in Tucson, Arizona, has one of Grandma’s quilt tops. It’s a pattern called Grandmother’s Flower Garden or French Bouquet, considered the most popular pattern after 1925. I still see versions of it today. It’s comprised of small hexagons of different colors put together in circular shapes. Lori sent me photos of her quilt top along with a letter from her mother (my sister-in-law) dated January, 2012. The following are captions from the letter:

“Now for some history behind this [quilt]:

"I received this quilt from Virginia [my mother] when I was either 17 or 18 years old [I would have been about 10 or 11 then]. They were packed in a chest in the front bedroom of their home in Tucson, which I think was on a street just about four blocks to the west of goyette Street named Eastview or something similar. [It’s actually called Eastgate Drive.] I was there one day and for some reason we were in that room and she had the chest open and showed them to me. Well, I went gaga over them and she just said something to the effect of – take them, we don’t need them.

“She said they were all made by George and Ned’s mother [that is my father and his brother who lived with us most of his life], who as I recalled dies before your dad was born. She said this great-grandmother of yours quilted all the time, had quilts everywhere. Apparently she did not put much value in cleaning her house, but sure could cook and quilt.

“Anyway, one was a blue and orange pieced fan quilt that I quilted when I lived in Payson and gave to Gary and Pam [her son and his wife]. They lost/misplaced that years ago. Then there was the green one made of over 2,000 little 1-inch squares called Garden Walk. I think I did that one a few years after the blue and orange one, and for the life of me I do not know what happened to it. Seems like I kept if for myself, but I have no recollection. So, this one is the only surviving top.”

Fascinating!

Here are the pictures of Lori’s quilt top, one of Grandma Wier’s few surviving quilts…

Sashing and Cornerstones (cont'd from August 14, 2014)

When I last blogged, I had decided to wait for a clear sign from Grandma Wier as to which approach to take with her quilt blocks: sashings and cornerstones or simply sewing the blocks together, which would make a secondary design. Well, I’m in luck as my best friend turns out to be a medium of sorts. When we talked Saturday morning, in addition to telling me I “over think things”, she claimed to have communed with my Grandma Wier and her message for me was to use my best judgment and Just Do It! as she was off to a quilting bee with her friends and didn’t have time to mess around with “signs”. According to Sally, before she left she also made a few derogatory comments about Sally’s quilting. LOL! I do take after my Grandma Wier: we’re both quilters and I’ve made similar comments!

The next step in assembling the quilt top was to square up the blocks. This took some time because I had to make sure the design was centered before trimming the excess background fabric. During this process I discovered that the appliqué on each of the blocks varied from ¼” to a substantial difference. Two of the blocks were larger than the others by almost 1-1/2” in width and length making them unusable.

I’d planned to use all of the blocks in the quilt, but this little problem meant that rather than make a 4x4 block quilt, I needed to reduce the size to a 3x4 block quilt. Not really an issue, because I prefer rectangular to square quilts and it’s still a very nice size at 56”x74”. Also, that leaves me with a few blocks for throw pillows…my own mini quilts made by my grandmother. However, this also meant the idea of a secondary design wouldn’t work, because the 3-piece fan corner designs wouldn’t align properly. So you see, problem solved! I had to go with the sashing approach to disguise the variances in the blocks. As it turns out, Grandma Wier did communicate directly with me.

Once that decision was made, the rest was easy. I cut the fabric I’d purchased on Friday from the Sewing Cottage and assembled the blocks in rows and then the rows into the quilt top and Wahlah!, a completed top ready to be quilted! This next week I’ll make another trip to the Sewing Cottage to buy a backing and I’ll be ready to quilt. I’m happy with the fabrics I chose to complete the top and the size is perfect! Here’s what the project looks like at this stage.

To be continued…

An Historical Undertaking (cont'd from August 13, 2014)

Thanks for taking this journey with me. I could have just quietly worked on this project and included a short paragraph at month end with a picture of the finished quilt. I ask you…What fun would that be? Instead I’m including you every step of the way. You will know the challenges I face, the thought process I go through, and the sometimes faulty conclusions I draw. I intend to bare all!

I have to admit, I’m beginning to feel some attachment to this quilt. It’s drawing me in quite against my will. I have never had much of an interest in antiques or old things in general (people being an exception). When I opened the box earlier this week and first handled the squares, I understood why my mother was going to toss them. She’d carried them from Michigan in 1947 to her new home in Tucson, Arizona (I was conceived in Michigan, born in Tucson in March, 1948) and I’m sure she considered them clutter, long overdue for the trash.  After all, she felt no real connection to her mother-in-law and there were so many new and improved fabrics on the market…like polyester (my mother was totally into polyester). And, she was not a quilter and would have seen no real purpose in a stack of pieced squares.

Back to my journey…I started to feel some connection to the quilt as I was ironing each square yesterday afternoon and trying to imagine the quilter whose work I am about to finish. Leanne has spent years researching our family genealogy and put together a fairly complete history of my mother’s side, the Moore’s. Before she researched my father’s family, she spent a couple of years attending community college. Between studying and raising a young child, she had no time to return to the genealogy work and has asked that Judy and I continue her work and research and prepare the history of the Wier family. Yikes! This is not something I would ever choose to do and, until receiving these quilt blocks, had no interest in genealogy. But now, that’s all changed. I need to know more about Grandma Wier. At a minimum, I want a framed picture of my kindred spirit hanging in my Studio!

I left off yesterday with an unsolved mystery…the blanket stitch on the blocks. I’ve made a discovery and, frankly, I’m feeling very embarrassed about having to admit to you that I was so, so wrong! If you weren’t accompanying me on this journey, you never would have known, So many “if’s”… I’ll just blurt it right out and then give you my excuses: I was wrong, both the piecing and the blanket-stitching are done by hand, not machine!

How did I miss it? My only excuse is that the lighting was not adequate and my glasses were dirty (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). Actually, the first part of that excuse is accurate. I have great lighting in the cabin, but it creates so much heat in the summer that I sometimes work in the near-dark, as I was when I examined the blocks. Well, this morning Verne drove me to town to run some errands and stop by to buy fabric needed to finish the quilt. While he ran into the post office, I was sitting in the car with the sun beating through the window and I looked down at the quilt blocks in my lap and saw that the blanket stitch was actually two part: a machine stitching line within 1/8” of the turned edge and a much thicker pearl cotton thread used to create the decorative edge. I couldn’t believe I’d missed that! Having made one mistake, I decided that I might also be mistaken on the technique used to construct the blocks. I pulled at the seams and yes; they were also hand stitched in the tiniest possible stitches, mimicking machine stitches. The only machine stitching on each block is to secure the design to the backing…the visible stitching that fooled me on the blanket stitch. All I could say was, “Grandma Wier, I’m sorry for suggesting you would cut corners and use a machine to blanket stitch your work. You must have been rolling over in your grave when you heard me say that. By the way, you certainly did beautiful handwork. I can’t wait to see some of your other quilts.”

With Mystery #2 solved, this probably isn’t necessary, but Verne spent time researching the blanket stitch question I raised yesterday, so I’m going to include the information for your edification.

“This stitch has long been both an application by hand and as a machine sewn stitch. When done by hand, it is sometimes considered a crochet stitch, used to join pieces together to make a blanket or other larger item.

When done by machine, it may be called a whip stitch or, sometimes, a Merrow Crochet Stitch, after the first sewing machine that was used to sew a blanket stitch. This machine was produced and patented by the Merrow Machine Company in 1877. The defining characteristic of the crochet machine is its ability to sew with yarn and stitch thick goods with a consistent overlock edge. From 1877-1925 the machine evolved dramatically, and consequently so did the capacity of manufacturers to produce goods with the whip stitch.” Source: Wikipedia

I now find myself at a crossroad…I’d decided to finish the top with a 1” sashing and cornerstones to add a little color as well as provide a quilting line around the blocks. I took the stack of blocks to the Sewing Cottage in Jackson and to my surprise soon found myself surrounded by quilters interested in the old piece. Our hometown-quilting expert, Anelie Belden, immediately identified the block as a Dresden Plate, a classic design that has been around for centuries. In fact, she’s written a book on the subject of Dresden Plates and said that she’d research my particular version of the Dresden Plate and that she might be able to determine when it was designed and first published. Yeah! I’ve never had one iota of interest in classic designs, but I’m beginning to feel a stirring way down deep. I think Grandma Wier wants me to make a Dresden Plate quilt in her honor. I thought I was just imagining her presence with me yesterday in the Studio, but I’m beginning to believe she’s with us on this journey. Who would have thought?

I digress…the crossroad is this: Anelie said that the sashing and cornerstone approach would have been typical in that era, but she wants me to consider omitting the extra fabric (which I’d just bought) and simply sew the squares together. By doing so, a secondary design is created by the 3-piece fans at each corner. I know, this is hard to imagine. Bottom line is this: I’m not sure which road to take. Time is of the essence, but I think I’ll just give it a day or two and hope that Grandma Wier makes herself heard giving me a clear idea of what she had planned.

To be continued…

So, What's Up?

Every month or so we spend a day in Nevada and whether necessary or not, we stop by to see Cece. I'm always anxious to see her latest projects and Monday's trip didn't disappoint. There was an intricately designed needlepoint in progress, a tulip patchwork quilt nearly completed, and (get ready to see what could be our next group project) this adorable elephant made from fabric scraps. It's raw-edge applique, finished with a blanket stitch, and then quilted. Cece quilted this herself using free-motion meandering in the background and she did a great job! Kudos to you, Cece!

She bought the pattern at a quilt show and has since purchased the tulip pattern from the same company. Check out this web site (www.bjdesignsandpatterns.com) for other patterns and choose one to make at our next retreat. The website home page says "wholesale only," but according to Cece they sell retail also. I'm think May 2015 would be a good time for a Stix Retreat, so that gives you plenty of time to prepare.

So, what's up with me??? I've been consumed by jamming; actually, my obsession has expanded to pickling. Whatever I am putting in a jar and processing, it took up much of July and has now encroached upon August. This past week I've tried to break the fixation by hanging up my apron for at least an hour a day and walking to the cabin and hanging out with Mr. Ernest (the resident cat). My first day back was spent doing nothing but that. He was so happy to finally have some quality time with his human, he wouldn't leave me alone! I was still feeling uninspired on Day 2, but I decided to just choose a project and begin! I've since spent five hours cutting (my least favorite part of quilting) and with another 2-3 hours I'll be ready to begin sewing on a poppy quilt that was originally intended for yours truly. At this point, I still may end up with it or it may be given in trade for a set of silverware that I don't need. How do I get myself into these things??? I'll say no more, but will post pictures as I progress. For now, here's how it looks...

Those little white labels identify each of four fabrics for each of four poppies, as well as the foliage and background. The cut pieces are in sandwich baggies and not pictured. Believe me, this is not a quilt you are going to want to make!

I'm beginning to work on a second project, which comes with a history. Most of you know that my 52-year old niece is suffering from liver cancer. My sister is with her in Missouri and together they have been going through boxes of old pictures and keepsakes that Leanne wants to distribute amongst her two adult sons and her 13-year old daughter, Emma. In addition to photos (Leanne worked in the field for years, so there are literally hundreds of them), Leanne has two antique quilts in various stages of completion. Years ago she salvaged a box of quilt blocks and a quilt top that was completely pieced, but not quilted. that my mother was going to toss (she was a loving woman, but not particularly sentimental). Leanne has little information about the quilts and believes a great- or great-great-grandmother made them. She intended to complete the projects started almost a hundred years ago, but has never gotten around to it. Well, I now have the box of quilt blocks and I'm determined to help Leanne realize that dream. I'll be picking up the second quilt when we visit her in September.

Let's talk about those16 quilt blocks that arrived this week as they hold a few mysteries for me.

Mystery #1: The quilt blocks are pieced on the machine using 30's fabrics and muslin for the background. The 30's fabric helped me establish that it was more than likely my great-grandmother who was the quilter (I grew up next door to my grandmother and never saw her quilt or saw a quilt displayed in her home so I knew it wasn't her...although, it's strange that she wouldn't have displayed her mother's quilts?!). Anyway, I surmised that it was Great-Grandmother Moore who made the quilts and that she would have been in her 50's or 60's at the time. Feasible. I received a clue this morning from my sister (she got it from my brother's widow, Nola) that blew up that theory. It was actually my father's mother who was the quilter...a grandmother I never got to know as she died before I was born. So, Grandma Wier was a quilter...Interesting!

Mystery #2 is not so easily solved. The machine stitched pieces have been machine blanket stitched to the muslin background! What? Did home sewing machines even have that feature back then? (Something for me to research.) Leanne got these blocks from my mother over 30 years ago and apparently my mom didn't know or share the history of the quilts, so this may remain a mystery forever.

Beyond being puzzled by the source of these quilts and the machine blanket stitching, the blocks were as I expected...yellowed and musty smelling. They'd been stored in a plastic bag, which I've always heard is a no-no (maybe because it causes the yellowing?). Anyway, I decided that I couldn't work with smelly blocks, so I washed them this morning and, lo and behold, they came out bright and fresh smelling. There are still a few small stains, but then they are probably over 85 years old so it comes with the territory. There was some shrinkage, but I ironed them and am hoping much of it can be quilted out.

I was pleased when I saw and recognized the fabrics used for the piecing in these blocks as I have a pretty sizable collection of retro 30's fabrics. Unfortunately, Lauren was looking for new projects to work on and I took her a pattern and my entire 30's collection when we visited last month. Dang! Not a single one to be found in my 36 bins of fabric. I don't want to buy more fabric, but it's that or spend $15-$20 and have Lauren ship mine home. Before I make that decision, I'm off to look at 30's fabrics at the Sewing Cottage.

To be continued...